Why Outsourcing to the Philippines Could be the Best Move You Make

Let’s face it, we all know it’s cheaper to go offshore for call centers. The question that many businesses face when trying to decide whether or not to go offshore often comes down to price and quality. Obviously there is going to be a trade of here, but you don’t have to sacrifice as much as you might think. We have all been in that spot where we receive a call from a call center and we can’t understand the person on the other end. It is frustrating and only reinforces our preconceived notions of call centers and outsourcing. It doesn’t have to be that way. I have found that the Philippines offer some of the best options in both price and quality.

The Call Center industry is currently one of the fastest growing industries in the Philippines. It is estimated that $150 billion dollars worth of business is being done from in the country right now as a result of outsourcing; which includes tech support, customer/financial services, and online B2B/B2C support. The Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines earlier projected industry wide revenues of $12 billion and about one billion jobs created by 2010. Those numbers were far exceeded.

In the call center industry, the Philippines holds tremendous competitive advantages over its rivalry in this region. The Diamond Study showed 56 percent of all BPO buyers doing tech support ranked cost as the top reason for outsourcing. Philippine rates very well in terms of having talented people, strong infrastructure, and a high level of quality of customer services. Buyers will find they’re paying much less on finding new employees and building new call centers in comparison with other newly involved countries like Vietnam and Indonesia.

More and more BPO buyers realized that when doing tech support, simply lowering the cost arbitrage is not a sustainable strategy; eventually the buyers will start to become more focused on their customer’s satisfaction. Philippine is an English speaking country, which gives them significant advantage on the English language services over China, they are able to speak in an American style accent and use proper cultural idioms. This also helps their English speaking customers understand them more easily, especially when compared to their competitors in India. From a study by the CFI Group, “Satisfaction with Contact Centers Drives Customer Loyalty,” examined Americans’ perceptions of and experiences with call centers. According to the report, the overall customers’ satisfaction rate to the call centers in Philippines is 26 points higher than the call centers in India.

Higher customer satisfaction rate was not only attributed to more American friendly accents, but also because the more friendly traditional cultural environment. Unlike the large-scale countries like India & China, where most of the people are busy and live in a fast pace life, Philippine traditionally is a small, relaxed, and slow paced society. People in such environments normally are friendlier and love to help others. The local people are bringing this tradition in to their jobs. When doing tech support for their customer, they make them feel that they really care about them. Philippines is currently planning to improve as a market for BPO firms, it’s going to be more than just a destination for call centers, but move to being a center of knowledge based outsourcing.

So when you are wondering how you can cut costs and at the same time maximize profits and you are looking into outsourcing, consider taking your business to the Philippines. It has been my experience that those who do and find the right partner to take them there, are always glad they did.